Do You Know What Your Customers Are Saying About You?

Should you care what others are saying about you? And, if you know, what do you do about it?

These are all questions that you must know the answers to if you want to make sure you are successful in today’s world. Your reputation follows you everywhere, especially online.

Recently, a friend of mine shared this story. He has been visiting the same repair shop for over 30 years. He has three cars and each of them needs regular maintenance and service. He needed new tires, so he went online to do some research. In his mind, he was going to determine what kind of tires he needed, get an estimate of the price, and then have them installed at his usual repair shop. He went to Google and typed in “tire.”

Since Google already knew your location, it will automatically provide you with the closest businesses, which in this case was the shop he intended to go to. He was shocked by what he saw — numerous nega-tive reviews. He read the horror stories of past customers. Even though he’s never had a bad experience, he didn’t feel the same anymore. So instead of going to his usual store, he purchased all four tires from a national chain for a total of $932.43.

The bad news for this repair shop was not that they just lost a $900 sale, they also lost him as a customer — all of his future business.

Here is some food for thought:
• 62% of people read online reviews before making a decision to buy.
• 72% trust these reviews as much as a personal recommendation.
It doesn’t matter if it’s true. It only matters that your customers, and
potential customers, see it as true.

Here is what you can do about it:
1. Find out what people are saying about you. We’re offering JT subscribers a free evaluation report. Visit mywebreputationreport.com.
2. Start managing your reputation.
3. Start monitoring what is being said about you online.
4. Start creating systems that generate five-star reviews.
5. Market those five-star reviews on all of the influential sites online. You must have at least 10 reviews for a rating to appear.

Brian Sacks is a mobile marketing expert with over 26 years of direct response marketing experience. He is the co-founder of Trackable Response, Inc., a mobile and web design marketing firm based in Catonsville. Trackable Response built JT’s new website. Learn more at trackableresponse.com.